Appeal 2007-2426
Application 11/058,146
individual wheel drive comprises an electric motor (2) having an output shaft (1)
connected as one piece with a transmission’s (4) inner central gear (3) (¶ 0011).
The output shaft is supported by first (7) and second (8) bearings. See id. The
second bearing is supported on a planet carrier (9) which supports planet gears (10)
and constitutes an output (¶ 0011; fig. 1). The planet carrier is connected by an
output flange (15) to a brake (16) and a rim (17). See id.
Thompson discloses a drive configuration for a skid steered vehicle such as
a military tank (¶ 0001). The drive configuration comprises a controlled
differential device that preferably comprises two epicyclical gear trains (¶¶ 0013,
0017). The Examiner relies upon the embodiment in Thompson’s figure 2 (Ans. 4-
5). Thompson describes the controlled differential in that embodiment as follows
(¶ 0037):
As can be seen from FIG. 2, a preferred arrangement of a controlled
differential comprises a steer motor (21) mounted on a cross-shaft (22). A
pair of epicyclical gear trains are arranged such that two planet carriers are
connected by a shaft (23) which passes through the centre of two sun gears
(24 and 25). The sun gears (24, 25) are in turn coupled with spur gears (26a,
26b, 26c, 27a, 27b) to the steering shaft. Idler gear (26b) is used on one side
to reverse the direction of rotation of the sun gear. Two annuli (28, 29) of
the epicyclical gear trains are coupled to output shafts (30, 31) of the
controlled differential and are shown connected to two propulsion motors
(32, 33).
The Examiner relies upon Thompson’s spur gears 27a and 27b as
corresponding to the Appellants’ input gear set (Ans. 4). The Examiner argues that
“[i]t would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of
applicant’s invention to combine the input gear set of Thompson with the drive
wheel of Mann in order to provide a connection between said planetary gear set
and said electric motor while allowing those components to be located in positions
3
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 Next
Last modified: September 9, 2013